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201521th International Festival of Psychotherapy and Practical PsychologyCHRISTMAS-TIDE MEETINGS

OFFICIAL REPORT

Patient: Where are you going?

Therapist: To Kislovodsk.

Patient: In-service-training?

Therapist: Could say so.

Patient: (expressing sympathy)… yes, sometimes we have to do that, too.

Once the theme of The Will and The Lot became mature by 2015. The situation in the country and that in the world would make you feel the limitations and the reality of the most serious threats to each of us. There had been no such dangers for so long then. Besides, many of the Sviatky people and myself, we were going to the Festival full of some feelings of some major or minor, sad or happy family events. Some had to leave their closest ones, for some time or forever, somebody else’s friends left abroad, some had their family members in Ukraine, somebody got divorced while someone else, on the contrary, got married, somebody was expecting, somebody got their children married, etc. Our relations in professional communities, too, face some challenges that we have never seen before.

In the whirlpool of all these events, we still go on making our choices. As they say, we make a choice, while the choice makes us. This time we spend together in early January is a manifestation of our Will and it is our Lot in many ways now.The Norwegian psychological game for kids Hi (Moderators: Alexey Koryukin and Lars Øhlckers), which was used as a warm-up was exactly about that. We got to know each other through stories of our choices in various emotional situations. This time warming up was not group-, yet person-oriented. And this approach I will use for this report as well, telling more about specific people.

From time to time, some people discover the Festival while the Festival discovers these people, to their mutual joy. Supported by the Sviatky Fund (President – Ivan Korolevsky), we had a special guest to the Festival – Yulia Tuzova, a singer, songwriter, poet, Director of Child Folklore Studio SVETLITSA, a mother of 4, by the way. Her voice, charisma, strong spirits and folk art made her the voice and the decoration of the Festival, making it so vivid and bright. Thank you, Julia, thank Ivan for this manifestation of the great Will.

For Sergey Popov of Minsk (Belarus) this Festival was the third in his life. He came very much tuned to the Christmas melody and demonstrated a new portion of his extensive knowledge and talents. Sergey delivered a Club-Seminar Impossible not to Create – Shostakovich and his music, and was willing to deliver a key-note discussion, which he began with a small lecture Leg of the Destiny. Between Darwin and Freud. And at the skit-party he performed the sing by Vertinsky The Refined Woman. All these brought him the prize he well deserved – The Genius of Enlightenment.

The way Alexandra Dolzhenko and Elena Koneva (Rostov-on-Don, Russia) joined the Festival once again sent us thinking talking about the phenomenon of Christmas Tide. The colleagues of Rostov came and delivered well-prepared and interesting workshops (Healing games to parents piggy bank; Dance with Death), yet they chose to ignore all the related activities – community meeting, morning circles, large groups, etc. It was also a choice that allowed them enjoying a greater degree of Kislovodsk or something more. This, of course, does happen at the Festival but it always stirs different feelings and thoughts. First, it is surprising to those who come to those who value the dynamic component of our Festival. Second, it suggests that people avoid such places not without a reason. Hope this will be the focus of some discussion during our next meetings, which we now are awaiting with much excitement (especially it is true about those who did not attend their workshops this year).

Ilona Romanova (Yekaterinburg, Russia) delivered a general key-note discussion Psychotherapy and Stalking and a 2-part experiment Visiting Goddess Makosha. Non-Lot. Integrative-metaphorical therapy (individual method). Ilona’s idea about the balance between the Stalker (film by A. Tarkovsky) and the mission of a psychotherapist – this was really appealing to me. Both these characters “help others find the way” to the room where wishes come true. And both in the Zone and in the zone of psychotherapy there are traps to make you lose your way. And on both the characters this Zone/zone will have its impression, a powerful one. And this is what we discussed.

Ilona has already melted into Sviatky, and you can’t imagine Sviatky without Ilona. In the latest years she has been bringing some workshops that help the Festival acquire that very rich taste and the power of common, pre-psychological investigation of the soul. The bright costume of a gypsy she wore at the Carnival – that was the special treat in her Sviatky tour cake. And this did not go unnoticed, she got the Virtuoso of Practice Prize, and this is well deserved.

The Norwegian participants were two only; yet the intensity of their activities was well above the number. Jone Olsen (Stavanger, Norway) delivered his workshop Cultural Aspects of Psychiatric Treatment (working with refugees in Norway). Unfortunately, this experience turned useful to our experts this year. Jone and Lars Øhlckers were active at the round-table discussion What to Teach and How to Teach. Lars also brought a game (Hi), which was translated into Russia, and a very nice presentation of his creative activities for an analytical understanding of the nature of the artistic. Everyone remembers Jone’s wise and emotional involvement at the Large Group. And Lars got the prize as the Best Footballer from the football fans. In other words, Vikings once again proved they can conquer both lands and hearts. And Sviatky once again proved an efficient space to develop and enforce international contacts.

This year’s guests coming from the capital were Vladimir Tsapov (Master Emeritus of Sviatky) and Tatyana Myshlenok. Tatyana delivered a seminar (Methodological Group Supervision over Preschoolers as an Element of Teaching Non-interpretative Psychotherapeutic Influence) while Vladimir Tsapov’s workshop was Single Psychosis & Nosology. Dynamic Interaction among various Nosologies, which was part of the Basic Course.

The Stavropol Region has suffered from a lack of experience and info related to observing infants and preschoolers, and practicing experts will understand the importance here, so Tatyana’s seminar delivering them this first-hand knowledge was especially good. Vladimir’s seminar focused on interesting issues in infants like insomnia, colic, vomiting, simple anorexia, merycism (rumination), jactitation, eczema. Pathologies in early object relations in cases of psychoses were also covered.

It was also interesting to follow the experiment developed by the Directors and implying joined activity of a local and a newcomer – Sergey Ivanov (Stavropol, Russia) and Tatyana Myshlenok (St. Petersburg, Russia). Sergey demonstrated wonders managing the group with no words, just thoughts, while Tatyana who had not reached that level yet tried to run the group in the conventional way – employing verbal interventions. The co-leader and all the other Sviatky people were kindly patient – we all have been through this once.

The last year’s large groups were especially prominent due to the interaction dynamics between the old-timers and the basic course. I believe this is because the community is now witnessing the development of organizational and psychological structures of a professional school. And this is not just a talk about the training criteria; there are boundaries coming to be clearly cut between the generations, and the roles of certain persons or structures are coming under test. It is still hard for the students and the teachers to realize, demonstrate, and accept the mutual impacts. And Sviatky is part and model of the creative environment in the Stavropol psychological community, which is part of the country’s and the world’s communities, so living through and comprehending the large group dynamics is an interesting thing here. Once you turn 21 you still do not want to drop that youth recklessness, yet you have to take yup some new share of responsibility.

This year the large group had some particularly peaceful turn. Perhaps the external tension caused some restraint, or there was just not enough time and courage to have some full-scale response that would really involve someone. I, for one, was internally tuned to have a dialogue with those who spoke about faith, religion. These were the things I would like to be discussed in the living space of a large group; alas, did not happen. May be the matrix of the Sviatky unconscious and conscious will be back to it again.

Previously, the tensions lay between psychologists and psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and common people. No large group went on without someone provocative in order to stir some special love or aggression. At this time we had to be happy with some prevailing mood of mutual care. And of course everyone felt the large group’s process individually.

Svetlana Bashkatova (Stavropol, Russia) delivered a movie session followed with a discussion, which was Svetlana’s gift presented as ideas and impressions she had brought from the psychoanalytical festival Screen of Visible, Screen of Unconscious. The film Elena that she presented was a perfect demonstration of how the will of a human unable to have separated relations, could turn into an awful lot to those around. This is s a film about what happens once someone steps beyond the line. This is a film about an internal Apocalypses in the heart. Svetlana, both personally and professionally has always been so reserved and sophisticated.

In addition, Svetlana co-moderated the workshop Psychoanalytic understanding of sand psychotherapy (a case presentation of work with a child /initial stage/, which she delivered together with Elena Fomuschenko. For Elena it was a debut at Sviatky. Elena was bold and creative when using the Sviatky space just the way it is to be used. And once you have an interesting and exciting professional question, why not bring it up for discussion with colleagues in a comfortable, safe, yet rather professional a setting. This participant of the training course on psychoanalytic psychotherapy decided to see work with a child through the prism of sand psychotherapy. Actually, that was a little experiment. Is it any possible to substitute a lengthy psychotherapy for a popular technique promising a quick effect?

Sand therapy is being actively promoted now among practical psychologists, which attracts attention and sends you trying to understand and to make up an idea. A well-prepared workshop, the use of illustrative material, involvement of experts, and a large number of participants – all these made the discussion useful and very interesting. Hope it was a good example for all who are still undergoing training.

Konstantin Vdovydchenko (Inozemtsevo, Russia) delivered express-training in archery and a Training-Thinking CHUM… , a. This time Konstantin was the keeper of that very creative, emotional, and adventurous Sviatky spirit. The romantic touch of the Robin the Hood times and involvement into some sport event carried everyone away, both children and adults. The workshop meant for ladies alone stirred peculiar feelings in women and fantasies in men. And all this was then very much discussed at the Tell-tale.

Elena Kalinina (Stavropol, Russia) had already been successfully using the behavioral approach, which she once studied as guided by Vladimir Romek who missed the Sviatky this time. And the theme she focused on was not an easy yet an interesting one: A step towards the will: technology of work with panic attacks within cognitive-behavioral therapy. I could hear a lot of positive feedback about the workshop. Unfortunately due to some troubles with the room Elena had to be very self-controlled and pluck together all the best of her skills in order to keep up the working area.

What and how to teach? Discussion of issues related to practical training for mental health experts (Alexey Koryoukin, Mikhailovsk, Russia; Sergey Popov, Minsk, Belarus; Lars Øhlckers, Stavanger, Norway; Oksana Tatarenko , Stavropol, Russia). Last year Galina Moskotinina and myself wanted to discuss issues of training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the club session. Now this year the theme was much broader. First Alexey asked the experts of three different countries describe the system and process for professional training, which produced an interesting comparison; then there were many questions ot the Norwegians, including issues related to corruption in education, etc. And then we stopped exactly when it came to the discussion of What and how to teach.

Denis Sevryugin (Stavropol, Russia) and Alexander Bagutsky (Moscow, Russia) delivered a professional symposium-club How to Treat? And they discussed different treatment approaches involving a case supervised by several specialists.

All those attending the event could join the expert team when getting to know the patient – some took on the role of the specialist while others acted as patients. First of all, it was a pleasure to see Denis and Alexander at the Festival, and second – it was good to get to know some interaction involving different experts – something many had heard about yet had never seen before. All those working in professional groups face, sooner or later, a need to coordinate and join their effort when working with patients, so it was interesting indeed seeing how it is done by those who do know. As usual, this meeting turned into something more than just a classical methodological class. Form theoretical issues we passed onto something emotional and philosophical, and I believe the leaders of the seminar enjoyed it just as much as the participants did.

Sergey Ivanov (Stavropol, Russia) had the discussion group WILL – YOURS; LOT – OURS (how we get rid of our clients). Sergey has some great skills that are so good for any Sviatky man – he can somewhat easily single out some interesting and touching issue for a discussion, present it in a simple and transparent way, deliver everything remaining so calm and light, and then get the title of Master of Feelings.

Key-note discussion LEAVE THE GUN. TAKE THE CAKES. Experts: Vladimir Tsapov (St. Petersburg, Russia), Alexey Koryoukin (Mikhailovsk, Russia). Discussant – Dmitry Yurchenko (Inozemtsevo, Russia). This discussion turned a perfect illustration and implementation of the basic principles of our community. We have every right to say that the Stavropol-based community is one of the few in Russia (as far as I know it, one out of just two) that was able to resist the tension of its development for so long and remain, both for the colleagues and for the clients a role-model of efficient and comfortable interaction. Vladimir and Alexey showed how to take and work through super-pressing situations, which are related to the conflict between a community and an individual specialist. As usual, Dmitry was amazing with his ability to fathom the whole thing in a very reserved and business-like manner, draw generalizations, and offer the names for the most controversial and complicated phenomena. All this earned him the title of the Healthiest Person and the The One of Sviatky, which I find very much within common sense. This, after all, is the manifestation of the maturity in the females joining Sviatky who finally start selecting mentally sane and promising experts.

Natalia Nefedieva (psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist; expert of European confederation for psychoanalytic psychotherapy) delivered her workshop WILL OF SPECIES AND LOT OF HUMAN BEING where she discussed methods for detecting and working through repetitions of the Past in the Present. The participants here could learn how to identify individual, species, and collective repetitions in their daily routine in order to be able to stop the undesirable, uncomfortable, and traumatizing situation and conditions.

Without this topic, of course, it would be hard to imagine a serious discussion on the will and the lot in the life of each of us. Natalia’s work is special because there is a special language and a style of comprehending the clinical phenomena. As Natalia wrote in the preface to her book “The Birth of the Self”, “… there are no two similar psychoanalyses at least because there are no two similar people”. Sviatky gain a lot due to such professional and interesting people like like Natalia and Vitaly Nefedievs. Vitaly, who had a bright appearance last year is now thinking about a workshop in the next year.

Evgenya Kuptsova (Stavropol, Russia) delivered the seminar Arts of expressing soul. Creativity on psychotherapeutic practice. The participants tried to find the answers to the following: Can any type of art express human soul? When do we take some creativity product as a piece of art? Is it all insane if it is related to a genius? Apart from employing an interesting idea on the nature of creativity, Evgenya showed how a psychologist can work with psychoses. The thing is that together with her colleagues she successfully develops the principles for a psychological service that are based on culture, creative approach, and psychological resources.

The workshop by Lada Malysheva (Nevinnomyssk, Russia) Confession by Whore of Babylon. Life as search for object focused on understanding the will and the lot in sexuality; hypersexuality, or nymphomania, to be exact. The issue of sexual dependency has long been point of discussion in psychoanalytical literature. Dictionaries hold it that intrusive sexual desire, with no genitals involved is indicative of psychopathology. But on the other hand, the term “nymphomania” is used figuratively to refer to sexual behavior in women that is disapproved by the society, or to express a negative attitude of Puritan morality towards sexual activity in women. This is also about the will and the lot of female sexuality in the society. The participants watched the film NYMPHOMANIAC by Lars von Trier, discussed some clinical case, and reflected on what triggers such states and behaviors. There was an interesting discussion about female sexuality, vice, guilt, freedom of choice for object in clients with narcissistic structure. Besides, those who attended Lada’s seminar could talk about the uneasy lot of therapists who have to face a gaping hole in their female-patients begging to stop their search for the other one.

Yulia Kozachenko (Stavropol, Russia) delivered her workshop Will of Thinking Body, which allowed her draw people’s attention to the contact improvisation school that she has been actively developing in Stavropol. Contact improvisation is a free investigation together with a partner into the capacity of movement, capacity to play, to create together, just to be and talk through your body. Yulia’s talent in music as well as her active and creative nature revealed themselves through free dance, performance, and improvisation. Besides, Yulia was the coordinator and the only leader for the Child Programme this year. And I think the Child part was a great success, which you can get to know from a special report on that. I could only be surprised seeing Yulia to be strong enough, after all, to join the evening programme with some great jazz.

Football. Psychodynamic Elks vs. CaucasTransGuys.

I have been disappointed in football since long ago so once again I disappointed football and my team. This was one of the matches where you understanding from the first minute that this would be a battle for life. Our captain immediately got serious and tough, so my idea to slip away (pretending I was ill) failed. The teams were, actually, equal in their skills and strive to win so the audience was inside that very gambling spirit and enjoyed the fight! But our rivals involved a foreign player (Lars Øhlckers) who must have been on steroids (his game was really mad), actually dismissed the Elks from the first place. All the ladies watching the game just went roaring and were happy indeed, which I am sure about because I watched the last part of the match on the bench for the better half of humanity and for extra players.

As the Festival was one day cut in its duration the Skit Party and the Carnival were joined together, which was one of the reasons for grumbling among those who believed the genre must be kept pure. Of course, the Skit Party is just as important a way to express oneself and the Christmas experience, as the Large Group is. The variety of working and non-working areas at the Festival allows everyone to express themselves and share their talents. However, unlike the too-long opening the final part did not feel so deficient. I would like to make a special mention of some of the stars shining bright at this year’s Carnival: Marina Lagoshina (as usual), Anna Vetlitskaya (as never before), Lyudmila Tupitsa, Sergei Ivanov, Yulia Tuzova, Evgenya Zhurba.

And a bit about the Jury. Sometimes they have too much of the responsibility burden and break down into “foolplaying” andthen they just destroy the purity of the game. Now, this year’s Jury was really honest and responsible. Those who at least once were in the Jury will understand that this is a tough task. Thank you, guys, for the honest and beautiful work.

Up until this point the reason behind mentioning someone or something was the programme, which is the result of professional activity of some particular person and the will of the Programme Committee. But now we are turning to a discussion of the work done by those responsible for ensuring that the principles and organization of the Sviatky environment. In many ways, the Festival was originally created as an opportunity to escape from the bureaucratic model, which is strictly oriented at a hierarchy of control. The basis here lay in the ideas of group-analytical and psychodynamic interaction, the traditions of various professional and creative communities whom the organizers-to-be ever got to know.Now it occurred to me that using a contest could be an element of the behavioral model focused on the implementation of those behaviors that are determined by obvious or not-so-obvious rewards and punishments at the Festival. This must be a joke, which yet holds something serious in itself.

We have been long creating a healthy and effective professional community, trying to avoid excessive academic features, rolling down to a sect or a group of network marketing.

Sviatky are developing a Therapeutic Community model facilitating stimulation of the participants’ activity annually in order to encourage them to exchange information and make adopt urgent solutions for psychological analysis of practices and for mutual support.

Just like it is the case with classical therapeutic communities, the aim pursued through the work done at the Festival is to establish open lines of communication between all the members of the community, the development of a research culture, a culture of self-knowledge and self-care. This work is distributed among the responsible, those having a certain group-analytic experience or other relevant experience.

Discussions at the Tell-tales in the context above appear a container for projections, feelings that stir anxiety and impulses (often aggressive impulses in the participants and the organizers). The purpose of these small groups is to raise awareness about what is happening, to help them pronounce their fears, anxieties, feelings and fantasies. The leaders here are psychodynamically experienced members of the Sviatky community.

This year’s Tell-tales were led by Tatyana Alekseenko, Alexey Koryoukin, Anna Vetlitskaya, Galina Moskotinina, Lyudmila Tupitsa, Natalia Popova (special Tell-tale for the Jury). The real art here for the leader is to maintain the balance between a therapeutic group and a group discussing the speeches delivered at the conference.

From my point of view, the key roles in organizing the Festival and maintaining the Sviatky culture are now playing Alexey Koryoukin and Natalia Popova. These roles cause a lot of feelings that coincide completely with the thoughts and feelings in the majority of the voters in our country when it comes to issues regarding power – gratitude for having no ideas about those who could succeed the leaders of our country in their offices. The time and the resources they invest into Sviatky would already let us talk about the scale of a human life. Of course, this is their will, their risks allocating part of their professional and family time to the Festival. But the sincerity coming along with this with which it is done, as well as the place it takes in the lives of many of us – all these send us reviewing something that could be just conventional responses to each other. Form a traditional THANK YOU TO THE ORGANIZERS you coming to a sense of gratitude that is difficult to put into words, because the Sviatky values are seriously tied to the meaning of life, practices, finance, and even family relationships around many of us. One child visiting Sviatky could correlate with 6 months of individual therapy, three thick books, a hiking tour with a night over in the mountains, etc.

The winner in the nomination DISCOVERY OF SVIATKY was Alexander Danilov – a shy technical administrator of the Organising Committee. He also got the Prize of the Founders’ Board. Of course, he well deserved the prizes due to his responsible attitude, efficient behavior under force-majeure circumstances when the bus got broken, and due to his activity at the Festival, etc. However, this is largely an advance pay, an expression of hope for the future. And it is for a reason that Nina Gatsenko saw something similar between Alaxender and the young Alexey Koryoukin. And, of course, both in Sviatky and afterwards we saw Yana Rudneva who worked in a calm and responsible manner. And also the Sviatky people and the Jury had a special response to the worming initiative expressed by Vera Aidemirova, and especially pleasing was the contribution from Nina and Sergey Gatsenko (Kislovodsk, Russia). Once again they demonstrated their great hospitality and the ability to follow their commitment up to the top standard. And how can we forget the film conceived and made by Sergey Gatsenko together with the Child Programme participants?! And what about his coming out into the football filed to support the rivals when they were through a hard time… And for Nina and Sergey it was so important to share their daughter’s birthday… All these contributions do create hope and help us believe that it is within our Will to maintain all this is of value to us, our principles, our practices, and our staying together. This is why the older generation of the Community is now concerned about how to maintain the activity and belief in those who may determine the potential Sviatky-2035.

Sviatky itself is an illustration of a well-balanced interaction of Will and Lot. This is a unique assembly of people, which is more than just a seminar or a conference, or something done for fun. And this allows us to create a potential space between the outside, the real and the inner world of each of us. Professional communication intertwined with humour and spirit of the game generates creative attitude to the world and the profession. Thanks to Sviatky we can feel protected from anxiety and too specific, too serious thinking, which will destroy, after all, our ability to love and to work.

Sergey PeshkovMember of Board of Founders Master Emeritus of Academy16/03/15

Results of 21st International Festival of Psychotherapy and Practical PsychologyCHRISTMAS-TIDE MEETINGS

• 5 meetings of Professional Club (mentioned chronologically in their order of appearance at Sviatky):What and how to teach? Discussion of issues related to practical training for mental health expertsAlexey Koryoukin (Mikhailovsk, Russia)Sergey Popov (Minsk, Belarus)Lars Øhlckers (Stavanger, Norway)

The duration was cut from 5 down to 4 days (January 8-12).Besides, from the entire you could select two days based on one common theme (special seminars – work with children; for mental health experts).

Evening Programme

The Evening Programme was prepared and staged by Svetlana Bashkatova, Sergey and Nina Gatsenko, Sergey Ivanov, Yulia Kozachenko, participants of Child Programme, Evgenya Kuptsova (responsible for the content), Denis Sevryugin, Yulia Tuzova as well as all the participants who got their performances and costumes for the Carnival.The following events were held as part of the Evening Programme: Welcome Cocktail; Football Match Psychodynamic Elks vs. World Team CaucasTransGuys; Movie Session + discussion (Elena, Director – Andrey Zviagintsev); Disco SVIATKY ROCK-2; Sviatky Casino; Skit Party; Farewell Party – Carnival. The Evening Programme brought the following marks:• Best Footballer (prize from football lady-fans): Lars Lars Øhlckers (Stavanger, Norway)• Best Goalkeepers (prize of Angela Ganus): Sergey Gatsenko (Kislovodsk, Russia), Vitaly Nefediev (St. Petersburg, Russia)• Who I would go to (prize of Yulia Tuzova): Natalia Nefedieva (St. Petersburg, Russia), Nina Gatsenko (Kislovodsk, Russia)• Talent (prize of Yulia Tuzova): Alexandra Ivanova (Stavropol, Russia), Anna Koryoukina (Mikhailovsk, Russia)The prizes and the gifts were made by Grigory Bubnov (major prizes), Svetlana Bratsykhina (special marks for Academy members, Marks, prize for the auction), Denis Kobzev (prize from Board of Founders), Ekaterina Potapova (calendars), as well as by volunteers of the NGO New Choices (dolls for the Skit Party).